In remarks at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, the former Maryland governor did not criticize former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who announced her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sunday. But he did appear to be making an effort to stake out political positions to her left.

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In a 23-minute speech, which was met with intermittent applause, O’Malley offered his version of the sweep of the country’s recent economic history.

He derided what he called the Republican-championed theory of “trickle-down economics,” which he said was marked by tax cuts that benefit the very rich, deregulation, and policies meant to keep wages low.

The former Baltimore mayor, speaking with a mostly even, slow cadence, portrayed the current economic picture as wealth concentrated among a relative few and a wide gap between the ultra-wealthy and everyone else.

"The emerging presidential field has been tested by the startling wave of rage that swept the streets of Baltimore. With smoke still rising from the city’s burnt buildings, many struggle to calibrate their political response. Martin O’Malley, a former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor who might challenge Clinton for the nomination, returned from Europe to walk the streets of his city."Or not. Told everything returning to normal.

And he offered a series of policy proposals to change the economic status quo.

They included raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation; expanding Social Security benefits; making it easier for workers to organize and collectively bargain; restoring “accountability” to financial markets; and no longer “entering into bad trade deals,” which he said include the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership.It all sounds nice a good, but we have a guy who claimed all those things about seven years ago and he didn't do it. It's all good-looking campaign rhetoric and it means nothing. The $pecial intere$ts and other in$titutions drive the policies. Oh, there may be internecine warfare at the top between certain families and interests and who calls the shots, but the playbook is the same.

He also framed reform of immigration laws — creating a path to citizenship for people in the United States illegally — as an action that would boost the economy.There are not enough jobs as there is, and why not reward criminality?

In addition, O’Malley, who served as Maryland’s governor from 2007-2015, trumpeted his record.Well, I dunno.... lot of inequality in Baltimore and Maryland. He's going to run on that while his record at home.... ??

“Yes, we raised the minimum wage, we expanded collective bargaining. We passed a living wage — while freezing in-state tuition for four years in a row. And we made record investments in education to make our schools the best in the nation,” he said.Okay.

After his speech, he took almost 40 minutes of questions, mostly from Harvard students. They ranged from attempts to elicit whether he was going to unveil a presidential run to a query about whether he thought he could be a good vice president.

O’Malley, 52, said he would make a decision on whether he would seek the Democratic nomination for president by the end of May.

He also said, to laughter, he does not think anyone actually runs for vice president....But now that the issue has been raised.... I dunno. Clinton/O'Malley just doesn't sound right, and how many electoral votes do they have?

O’Malley was warmly introduced Thursday by moderator Maggie Williams, director of the Institute of Politics and a former top aide to Hillary Clinton.You are on the short list, Marty.

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